Simon Collins
Explorer
Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is the first booster adventure by AEG. It is designed for three to four characters of level 4-5. It costs $2.49.
Production and Presentation: This module is 16 pages but each page is only ½ the width of an A4 page. The front (soft)cover features poor colour artwork, the back cover features an introduction for the players to the adventure. Internal artwork is black & white, minimal and poor. The central pages contain basic and poor quality maps of the levels in Castle Zadrian, though they are sufficient to run the adventure. The inside covers contain advertising and the OGL bumpf.
The Story: An alchemist opens up gates to different dimensions in his castle – poltergeist-like ‘Chaos Spirits’ have invaded the castle from another dimension and overcome the alchemist. The PCs are hired to rescue the alchemist, facing the strange dimensions, creatures and traps within the castle.
The High Points: Interaction with the weird spacial distortions and gates within the module are entertaining, and the traps are imaginative.
The Low Points: Though the story background goes a long way to explain this, the module still feels a bit disjointed and random with a strange mix of foes including hell hounds, an ankheg, a kobold sorcerer, and ghouls – for me they didn’t quite hang together coherently.
Conclusion: At the price, good value for money. If you like planar weirdness, good value anyway. For me, I could take it or leave it, and can only give it an average score.
This is the first booster adventure by AEG. It is designed for three to four characters of level 4-5. It costs $2.49.
Production and Presentation: This module is 16 pages but each page is only ½ the width of an A4 page. The front (soft)cover features poor colour artwork, the back cover features an introduction for the players to the adventure. Internal artwork is black & white, minimal and poor. The central pages contain basic and poor quality maps of the levels in Castle Zadrian, though they are sufficient to run the adventure. The inside covers contain advertising and the OGL bumpf.
The Story: An alchemist opens up gates to different dimensions in his castle – poltergeist-like ‘Chaos Spirits’ have invaded the castle from another dimension and overcome the alchemist. The PCs are hired to rescue the alchemist, facing the strange dimensions, creatures and traps within the castle.
The High Points: Interaction with the weird spacial distortions and gates within the module are entertaining, and the traps are imaginative.
The Low Points: Though the story background goes a long way to explain this, the module still feels a bit disjointed and random with a strange mix of foes including hell hounds, an ankheg, a kobold sorcerer, and ghouls – for me they didn’t quite hang together coherently.
Conclusion: At the price, good value for money. If you like planar weirdness, good value anyway. For me, I could take it or leave it, and can only give it an average score.
